Part 12 (1/2)

They could be heard afar off; especially the women, who were raising themselves in the cart, throwing up their hands.

At a hundred yards from the mill the cart stopped, and recognizing Father Diemer, munic.i.p.al councillor, who was driving, I cried to him, ”Hallo, Diemer! pull up a moment. What is going on down there?”

”The Prussians are coming, Monsieur le Maire,” he said.

”Oh, well, well, if they must come sooner or later, what does it signify? Do come down.”

He came down, and told me that he had been that morning to the forest-house of Domenthal in his conveyance, to fetch away his wife and daughter who had been staying there with relations for a few days; and that on his way back he had seen in a little valley, the Fischbachel, Prussian infantry, their arms stacked, resting on the edge of the wood, making themselves at home; which had made him gallop away in a hurry.

That was what he had seen.

Then other men came up, woodmen, who said that they were some of our own light infantry, and that Diemer had made a mistake; then more arrived, declaring that they _were_ Prussians; and so it went on till night.

About seven o'clock I saw an old French soldier, the last who came through our village; his leg was bandaged with a handkerchief, and he sat upon the bench before my house asking me for a piece of bread and a gla.s.s of water, for the love of G.o.d! I went directly and told Gredel to fetch him bread and wine. She poured out the wine herself for this poor fellow, who was suffering great pain. He had a ball in his leg; and, in truth, the wound smelt badly, for he had not been able to dress it, and he had dragged himself through the woods from Woerth.

He had eaten nothing for twenty-four hours, and told us that the colonel of his regiment had fallen, crying, ”Friends, you are badly commanded! Cease to obey your generals!”

He only rested for a few minutes, not to let his leg grow stiff, and went on his weary way to Phalsbourg.

He was the last French soldier that I saw after the battle of Reichshoffen.

At night we were told that the peasants of Graufthal had found a gun stuck fast in the valley; and two hours later, whilst we were supping, our neighbor Katel came in pale as death, crying, ”The Prussians are at your door!”

Then I went out. Ten or fifteen Uhlans were standing there smoking their short wooden pipes, and watering their horses at the mill-stream.

Imagine my surprise, especially when one of these Uhlans began to greet me in bad Prussian-German: ”Oho! good-evening, Monsieur le Maire! I hope you have been pretty well, Monsieur le Maire, since I last had not the pleasure of seeing you?”

He was the officer of the troop. My wife, and Gredel, too, were looking from the door. As I made no answer, he said, ”And Mademoiselle Gredel! here you are, as fresh and as happy as ever. I suppose you still sing morning and evening, while you are was.h.i.+ng up?”

Then Gredel, who has good eyes, cried, ”It is that great knave who came to take views in our country last year with his little box on four long legs!”

And, even in the dusk, I could recognize one of those German photographers who had been travelling about the mountains a few months before, taking the likenesses of all our village folks. This man's name was Otto Krell; he was tall, pale, and thin, his nose was like a razor back, and he had a way of winking with his left eye while paying you compliments. Ah! the scoundrel! it was he, indeed, and now he was an Uhlan officer: when Gredel had spoken, I recognized him perfectly.

”Exactly so, Mademoiselle Gredel,” said he, from his tall horse. ”It is I myself. You would have made a good gendarme; you would have known a rogue from an honest man in a moment.”

He burst out laughing, and Gredel said, ”Speak in a language I can understand; I cannot make out your patois.”

”But you understand very well the patois of Monsieur Jean Baptiste Werner,” answered this gallows-bird, making a grimace. ”How is good Monsieur Jean Baptiste? Is he in as good spirits as ever? Have you still got your little likeness of him, you know, close to your heart--that young gentleman, I mean, that I had to take three times, because he never came out handsome enough?”

Then Gredel, ashamed, ran into the house, and my wife took refuge in her room.

Then he said to me, ”I am glad to see you, Monsieur le Maire, in such excellent health. I came to you, first of all, to wish you good-morning; but then, I must acknowledge, my visit has another object.”

And as I still answered nothing, being too full of indignation, he asked me:

”Have you still got those nice Swiss cows? splendid animals? and the twenty-five sheep you had last year?”

I understood in a moment what he was driving at, and I cried: ”We have nothing at all; there is nothing in this village; we are all ruined; we cannot furnish you a single thing.”

”Oh! come now, please don't be angry, Monsieur Weber. I took your likeness, with your scarlet waistcoat and your great square-cut coat; I know you very well, indeed! you are a fine fellow! I have orders to inform you that to-morrow morning 15,000 men will call here for refreshments; that they are fond of good beef and mutton, and not above enjoying good white bread, and wine of Alsace, also vegetables, and coffee, and French cigars. On this paper you will find a list of what they want. So you had better make the necessary arrangements to satisfy them; or else, Monsieur le Maire, they will help themselves to your cows, even if they have to go and look for them in the woods of the Biechelberg, where you have sent them; they will help themselves to your sacks of flour, and your wine, that nice, light wine of Rikevir; they will take everything, and then they will burn down your house.

Take my advice, welcome them as German brothers, coming to deliver you from French bondage: for you are Germans, Monsieur Weber, in this part of the country. Therefore prepare this requisition yourself. If you want a thing done well, do it yourself; you will find this plan most advantageous. It is out of friends.h.i.+p to you, as a German brother, and in return for the good dinner you gave me last year that I say this.